“Who ordered you to kill those men?” Bautista asked.
“Nobody ordered me to do anything. I was defending myself.”
“And you’re telling us that neither Rain Robinson nor Jackie Washington ordered you to assassinate those men?”
“Asked and answered, Detective Bautista,” Akilah said.
“You work for them, don’t you? I mean Jackie Washington is your captain and Rain Robinson is the boss of The Family, right?”
“Relevance?” Akilah asked, but Bautista ignored her and pressed on.
“I think that both Rain and Jackie were there, and it was Rain, not you, that shot those men.”
Akilah touched Baby Chris’ hand. “Do you have any evidence to support those claims, Detective Bautista? Or sworn witness statements to support your somewhat outlandish claim.”
“Outlandish!” Bautista shouted, and Dickerson dropped his head a little. “You know as well as I do that Rain Robinson is the boss of Mike Black’s criminal organization and you were ordered there and ordered to kill those men,” Bautista said.
“Unsubstantiated. And again, I ask, relevance?”
This time Dickerson shook his head and cleared his throat. “I think we have all we need,” he said, and Bautista bounced out of her seat.
“Christopher Arcus, you’re under arrest for the murders of Darrell Cunningham, Maurice Zeller, Buchanan Buffington and Romy Harris,” Bautista said, and Dickerson looked at her like she was crazy. He stood up as Bautista went to the door and called for an officer to take Baby Chris away.
“Don’t worry,” Akilah said softly to him. “They have nothing, and they know it. Sit tight and I’ll have you out of here soon,” she said before the officer led him away.
Baby Chris was arraigned, charged with murder and Bautista was able to keep him locked down for the weekend. On Monday, Akilah attended a pre-trial meeting with Assistant District Attorney Wiley Monroe. He was very reluctant to pursue the case because, like everybody else, he knew that he wouldn’t have a strong case to take to trial. If he did, he would most certainly lose and that was unacceptable to him. Monroe had political aspirations that extended far beyond that office. But he agreed to do it as a favor to Bautista.
Like most men, he found Bautista to be a very attractive woman and had asked her out, more than once, so Bautista used that to her advantage.
“I know that you have to have more than this, Marita,” Monroe told her.
Bautista put her hands on his desk and leaned forward. “We can discuss that over dinner,” she said and dropped her voice a couple of octaves.
Akilah arrived at the meeting with Monroe, dressed in a uniquely-detailed red V-neck Jonathan Simkhai, stretch wrap dress.
“Good morning, Ms. Malheiros,” Monroe stood to say when his assistant showed her into his office.
“Mr. Monroe,” she said professionally and extended her hand. “Thank you very much for taking this meeting.”
“Please, have a seat,” he said after shaking her hand for a second or two longer than was necessary.
“Thank you,” she said and sat down in front of his desk. “Shall we get right to it?” Akilah said and crossed her legs.
“Yes,” Monroe said, shuffling through the papers on his desk but looking at Akilah. She reached in her briefcase, took out a pad and paper and then placed it on her lap. “Your client is being charged with murder, unlawfully discharging a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon.”
“Yes, Mr. Monroe, he is. Do you need a minute to get up to speed on the facts in question?”
“No, I don’t. I am familiar with the case—”
“Then I’m sure that you realize that charging Mr. Arcus with murder is clearly an overreach on the part of Detective Bautista.”
“Slow down, Ms. Malheiros. I think, based on what I see, this is clearly not an overreach on the part of the detective, and we have enough here to proceed with charging Mr. Arcus with murder.”
“Really?” she said with more attitude than was appropriate for the situation. “Is this the way you wanna play it?”
“Excuse me?” Monroe asked and Akilah ignored the question and moved on.
“With all due respect, Mr. Monroe, I suggest that we deal with the lesser charges of criminal possession of a weapon and unlawfully discharging a firearm.”